1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for determining a charge acceptance of a rechargeable battery, and to a method for charging a rechargeable battery.
2. Background
In motor vehicles, batteries serve to store electrical energy. The batteries supply energy for starting an internal combustion engine of the motor vehicle, and likewise supply additional electrical energy for other loads that must be operated both when the engine is running and when it is not running. The batteries are charged by a generator driven by the internal combustion engine.
In order to save fuel, it is known to charge the batteries by recovering the kinetic energy of the motor vehicle that was converted during braking, that is to say to convert kinetic energy into electrical energy, this being done by an appropriate control of the generator during braking of the motor vehicle. To this end, various methods have been developed that are intended to ensure optimum use of the battery and optimum recovery of the energy. In particular, battery monitoring systems (BMSs) have been developed that determine the instantaneous state of charge (SOC), that is to say the fraction of the currently maximum storable charge that is actually currently stored, and the instantaneous charge capacity (state of health, SOH), that is to say the fraction of the desired capacity of the battery that can currently be utilized, in order to control the charging of the battery. In many cases, a time integration of the current passed suffices for determining the instantaneous state of charge SOC, resetting to a fixed value possibly being required. The available charge capacity SOH drops in the course of the battery's service life. Methods for determining the state of charge SOC and the charge capacity SOH within a battery monitoring system are known, for example, from DE 10 2006 001 201 B4, DE 10 2007 050 346 A1 and DE 10 2008 034 461 A1.
Optimum control of the charging operation during braking of the motor vehicle requires, in particular, knowledge of the instantaneous charge acceptance, that is to say of the maximum charging current that can be accepted by the battery at the given instant. Particularly given the lead-acid batteries widely used in motor vehicles, the charge acceptance depends on a multiplicity of parameters that, in particular, are associated with prior charging and discharging phases, and said acceptance has to be determined not only from the state of charge SOC and/or the charge capacity SOH.